The World of Drones & Robotics Congress 2021 (WoDaRC) will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on 15 and 16 November 2021. Like last year, it will be presented in a hybrid format, providing in-person physical participation for those able to attend in Brisbane and a high-quality digital experience for those who cannot.

Due to additional companies seeking display space, WoDaRC has moved to a larger space (the Boulevard Auditorium) within the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Auditorium will also cater to larger numbers and provide increased social distancing for all those attending sessions.

Physical and virtual registration options are available. Al registration options, physical and digital, include access to all congress sessions for six months post-event on an on-demand basis via the WoDaRC viewer portal.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/ValentinValkov

FIRA is a leading global event series, which this year is focused on the new era of robotics in agriculture and the huge impact it will have on the whole value chain. For the sixth year running, FIRA will be a hybrid in-person/online event, and is expected to attract 3000-plus attendees from around the world, including robot manufacturers, agricultural businesses, producers, investors, suppliers and entrepreneurs.

The ROTORTECH 2022 Helicopter and Unmanned Flight Exposition is the premier industry event for the Helicopter/Rotary Wing and RPAS/UAV/eVTOL community in Australia, New Zealand and the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

The event provides a vital interface between industry, regulators and government, including:

• Operations and safety presentations
• Industry conferences
• Industry exposition showcasing the products and services of helicopter and unmanned flight related companies

ROTORTECH 2022 will host conferences by the Australian Helicopter Industry Association (AHIA) and Australian Association for Uncrewed Systems (AAUS) and feature presentations by key rotary and unmanned systems industry experts from Australia and the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

The National Surveying Congress will be an opportunity for leaders in the surveying profession to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the profession. The 2022 Congress theme is ‘Automatic Mutual Relaxation’.

As the profession comes to understand the impact of Automatic Mutual Recognition for surveyors across the country, the event will provide an opportunity for surveyors from across Australia to gather and discuss the issues facing the profession and the opportunities for the future. The highlight of the program each year is the Cadastral Leaders Panel which sees all the Surveyors-General on stage speaking about changes and opportunities in their states and territories as well as an update from ICSM and ANZLIC. There will also be an online option.

The National Surveying Consultancy Excellence Awards and Gala Dinner will be held on the second day of the event, 23 June 2022.

The 15th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory, COSIT 2022, will be held in Kobe, Japan, 5 to 9 September, 2022. Established in 1993, the Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT) is a biennial international conference series concerned with theoretical aspects of space and spatial information, aimed at advancing geographic information science and its emerging research frontiers.

The conference offers three (refereed) submission tracks with double-blind reviews: vision papers, full papers, and short papers. Embedded in the conference will also be an on-site mentoring program for doctoral students.

Contributions can cover a broad set of conference-relevant themes such as (but not limited to):

• activity-based models of spatial knowledge
• cognitive aspects of geographic information
• cognitive-behavioural geography, naive geography
• data-driven spatial information theory
• geo-ethics and geo-privacy
• events and processes in geographic space and time
• geographic information visualisation and geovisual analytics
• knowledge representation for space and time
• navigation and wayfinding of sentient beings and robots
• ontology of space and time
• place
• quality and interoperability of geographic information
• social and cultural organisation of space
• spatial and temporal language
• spatial aspects of social networks
• spatial decision support, impact of model design
• spatial (digital) humanities
• theory-driven spatial machine learning, artificial intelligence of space
• theories on volunteered geographic information
• theory and practice of spatial and temporal reasoning
• user interfaces, virtual spaces and collaborative spaces

The US National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) Annual Conference is the place to enhance geospatial excellence and collaboration for state, local, tribal and federal GIS policymakers and coordinators, private sector partners and other leaders in the geospatial ecosystem.

Providing critical and timely networking opportunities, the conference also offers the chance to connect, collaborate, and share with colleagues and partners.

The agenda will comprise:

Roll Call of States — Where state representatives will share a snapshot of achievements, challenges and upcoming activities.
Plenary Sessions — Presentations by and for the NSGIC community exploring challenges, successes and new approaches for collaboration in the geospatial ecosystem.
State Caucus — A roundtable discussion with state and local government representatives to talk frankly about current pressing issues.
GIO Academy — Leadership sessions and networking for state government GIOs and equivalents only (separate registration is required).
Speed Networking — A fun and fast-paced activity where sponsors, who have allocated points, will rotate to complete the circuit of visiting with state reps.
Annual Business Meeting — Including the election of new board members and leadership transition.
Awards Reception — Recognising exceptional work through the Geospatial Excellence Awards & NSGIC Service Awards.

The World of Drones and Robotics Congress 2022 is scheduled to be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Similar to 2021, it will be held in a hybrid format — in-person and online.

The World of Drones and Robotics Congress New Zealand (WoDaRC NZ) is shaping up as an unmissable event for anyone involved in robotics, drones, AI, AgTech and data-led innovation. WoDaRC is business-led, technology based and will create opportunities for collaboration and growth across the technology ecosystem.

Topics to be covered include:

• Regional capability and strategy
• Humanitarian engineering and disaster response
• Environmental science and agricultural technology
• The new frontiers: oceans, mountains, and space
• Movies, media, community, and social empowerment
• Education